Ibanez TS-808HW Hand Wired Overdrive Distortion Pedal Review

When the original TS-808 arrived everyone wanted one. Now the
TS-808HW hand wired is here. Does this hand wired overdrive pedal
sound like the original? Does point-to-point wiring in this Tube
Screamer make any difference? Find out in this review.

Ibanez TS-808 HW Hand Wired Limited Edition TS Review

What's all this about? Really, a hand wired limited edition
Tube Screamer TS-808 HW with all the bells and whistles and yes,
that's right, you do need a mortgage to own one of these; before
this they probably only ever existed originally in someone's mind.

It does not look anything really special? It's a bit
squashed compared to my regular
reissue TS-808 which is also reviewed on this website, so why
the hell would anyone pay the money that this thing costs? It's
really expensive.

Actually there are a number of reasons, but for your (typically
$350.00 or £280.00 street price) money this thing should really be
cooking the breakfast (it costs as much as my wife on a non spending
day ♥ she's nice really).

Let us firstly take a look inside this behemoth of a pedal (it is
for a TS808).

I see; there's something a bit different and
just a bit special in here, this thing is completely hand wired. But
does this make any difference whatsoever to the sound?

Now there are disbelievers out there that
might tell you that hand wired stuff is for old guys who always say
it was better 'back in the day' and they don't make them like they
used too; and all that other good stuff. But you know what? they
really don't normally make these this way it's true! Look at all
those resistors and capacitors just wired across a few patch boards;
oh and look it's still got its little 8 pin chip in there; even
though it does not have a soldered in socket like in the 'old days'.

Ah but enough of this twaddle I hear you all
say, none of that will make a jot of difference except maybe
introduce noise and other bad things like circuit oscillations and
instability in the pedal circuitry; you know, like in some of the hand wired
point to point amps we have all used from time to time. Of course
you might just all be wrong!

The build quality of this overdrive
distortion pedal is in fact
second to none and someone has spent considerable time inside that
little box and that's just one reason why Ibanez will tell you that
this box is worth the money. Another reason is that the chip is in
fact a very select chip that meets an exacting standard and all the
components are really tight tolerance to where they were supposed to
be in the original design. So every component is top class, real
care has been spent on the manufacture of this pedal and it even
comes in a fantastic collectors box because this is a limited
edition pedal and there will be no more Ibanez says one day. In fact
here I am in 2015 and this pedal is still for sale which is at least
two or three years later. So much for limited editions or maybe they
cannot sell them at these prices.

But what's it like when you put this in front
of your JMP100 or JTM45 or even in front of your Mesa Rectifier as
many do these days?

The truth is that this pedal does deliver the
goods and compared with my standard TS-808 reissue this pedal sounds
more transparent and clear in a funny kind of way even though its
primarily a distortion pedal. It's a little hard to describe and the
mp3's will not help much here either; but think about a pedal that
sounds really clear almost clean; then it delivers the goods in that
good old fashioned way (did I say that?) that the 'old boys' like to
talk about. Actually most of us will know how to use a TS808 and
this one is used in the same way. Personally I like to crank up the
level and keep the overdrive low; this has a great effect of pumping
up that modern amp you have while turning up the overdrive makes
those older designed amps really sing; just as they used to do back
in the darker days of no drive on your amp. But here's another tip.
Use this pedal in the loop of a Mesa Boogie triple rectifier tube
amp and it changes that hard to get the sound out of amp in to an
awesome amp that it should have been originally; try it and you will
likely agree. You could of course use any TS-808 for that though.

Other than the aesthetics of this pedal and the vibe you get from owning one of these is it worth
buying compared to a reissue? or another question might be should I
buy an original and skip the HW and reissue? This really is
expensive for a new pedal. My view is that if you want to buy a
TS808 that's different than most you will ever normally see, and that you want
to make some investment in some small way over the next 10 years or
more then this is a great pedal to buy and I recommend it
wholeheartedly.

However, if you want 'that' sound from a
TS-808 (whether its this pedal, a reissue of the regular one, or
indeed an original), personally I would buy the TS-808 reissue and
pass on this pedal. Checkout my
review of the TS808 Reissue.

There are benefits of this unit but they
don't lie in the sound particularly in my view. Here's the good
points about this pedal:

REALLY well made

Unique pedal with point-to-point wiring for what it's worth

Likely to gain in value

Really quite rare but these are not for everyone

The real deal chip a JRC4558D specially selected chip

True bypass switching

And here are some of the less good points:

Very expensive

Small increase in sound quality but you need bat ears to
detect it

Probably less reliable than the newer stuff

Chip is not socketed!

Overall my points score goes from 1 to 10 and
this TS808HW hand wired makes an average 7 on the scale, because the
price, sound gain of which there is little and potential reliability
issues could be a pain in the future. In any case, this is still a
very nice pedal which I will be keeping because I know a good
investment when I see one; maybe you should get one too before they
are all gone and will never be released again.

The Ibanez Tube Screamer, in its many versions and forms, can be
found on pedal boards in every corner of the globe, on arena stages
and in small studios and bedrooms. Its warm overdrive is a sound
many players, from advanced to beginner, could never do without.
Now, it gets even better with the release of the TS808HW, a
hand-wired deluxe Tube Screamer built with the pro musician in mind.
Encased in a special, heavy duty metal box, the TS808HW is
hand-wired with select JRC4558D chips (same as the revered and often
imitated TS808) and uses Japanese high-end MOGAMI OEC cable (AWG21).
Equipped with True Bypass, this Tube Screamer sends pure guitar
excitement to your amplifier with no tonal loss whatsoever. This is,
by far, the most evolved Tube Screamer ever created.